WWE Locker Room Thinks Roman Reigns Was Robbed at WrestleMania 31

The latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter claims that a good number of guys in the WWE locker room thinks Roman Reigns was robbed at WrestleMania 31, leaving him to be a “victim” of the fans. As previously reported, Reigns was set to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar up until a few days before WrestleMania 31, when the script was changed to Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win it.

It was well-documented that Reigns was hand-selected by Vince McMahon and other WWE officials to be the next HUGE “good guy” character in WWE. McMahon and company began planning Reigns’ ascension to the top of the mountain back in the Summer of 2014, knowing that by the time they got to WrestleMania 31, Reigns would be facing an unstoppable Lesnar, overcome the odds, and stand in glory as the belt is raised high and confetti floods the ring at “the Show of Shows” on March 29.

However, the fans began to turn on the new “goody two shoes” adaptation of Reigns’ former bad ass character in The Shield, and things did not go according to plan. On the contrary, fans booed Reigns out of the building when he entered and won the 2015 Royal Rumble Match, leaving the company asking, “what do we do?”

This of course happened in 2014 when fans wanted Daniel Bryan to win the Royal Rumble Match and headline WrestleMania XXX, but the company brought in Batista after a four-year absence to do so. The WWE Universe refused to accept such blatantly “company” booking, and proceeded to “sh*t” on everything WWE tried to do with the newly returned “Animal” Batista.

This led to WWE changing the WrestleMania XXX script to give the fans what they wanted, however McMahon was not expected to change a WrestleMania script two-years in-a-row. The backlash from the fans is what has made most of the WWE locker room bitter at the audible that was used at WrestleMania 31.

As said by John Cena during his sit-down interview with Chris Jericho on the WWE Network following “Monday Night Raw” on April 6, the guys in the back look at what has happened with Reigns as hypocrisy from the fans. Cena said that the fans say they don’t want him in the main event, and they want “new,” yet when we give them “new,” their response is, “it’s not good enough.”

Many backstage feel like Reigns is a victim in the situation and that he should have gone over Lesnar and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on March 29. Dave Meltzer writes,

“Most of the WWE performers were really defensive of Reigns, and there was a weird bitterness at the vocal fans that really caused the change of plans that has come across with several. Even those who won’t knock the fans are very defensive of Reigns being a victim here.

Unlike with Batista who was part-time and also last year everyone but Vince and HHH recognized Bryan should be champion, this year they knew the company had spent a year building Reigns and the fans put his climax in jeopardy, and eventually cost him it. But that’s the business.

I’m pretty sure Reigns knew ahead of time he wasn’t winning but that’s more connecting dots based on certain things said than first-hand knowledge of when he was told.”

While Reigns isn’t getting booed nearly as heavily now as he did going into WrestleMania 31, many question if his momentum will ever build to the point where he can bear the WWE flag and be the “top guy” in the company. The blame for this, according to some in the back, is solely on the hypocritical fan-base.

Editor’s Note:

We saw this situation happen in ’93-94 with Lex Luger. WWE spent a YEAR cultivating him into who they wanted to be the next “Hulk Hogan” or “John Cena” now, however the fans just didn’t buy it, so they crapped on it. They wanted Bret Hart.

Much like this situation the last 2 years, the fans have wanted Daniel Bryan as “THE” guy. The company doesn’t though. Now that the Intercontinental Championship is on Bryan, and the fans are excited about that, then WWE has the opportunity to thrust another babyface into Cena’s position, but it’s going to have to be someone other than Reigns.

He is going to HAVE to turn heel, then flip back to face later on down the road in my opinion. Only way he’ll turn out ok with the fans by this time next year. The unwanted push left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths, so it’s going to take time and a LOT of distance from that cheesy character to make fans REALLY get behind Reigns ever again.